Cool salsa website

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Changui

Hey I started a discussion on freestyle salsa and I discovered thanks to the input a cool website. It teaches Cuban and LA freestyle. What do you think of it? I subscribed to an online course that teaches to unlock any type of crossing with one technique. It is so easy. What do you guys think of it?

Son Montuno

Funda is currently the only method in the world that teaches freestyle salsa. You only need to know how to make variations on 5 easy tricks to become super creative. Become the new 1.000.000 moves man yourself !

No thanks. The above is enough to put me off, and equally importantly there is no mention of who the instructors even are, let alone what their background is. I can't imagine they'll get many takers.

Son Montuno

Son

I think the arm thing is a really important thing to learn for advanced leaders. I have to admit, even though I teach I don't know by heart how to get out of every hand position. However, it's hardly the most important thing in salsa.

What undermines the video for me is your moderately sloppy footwork and your partner's obviously off-time steps. I won't say it completely discredits you since everyone is better/worse at something, but you're trying to sell advanced knowledge without showing a strong grasp of some really important stuff. I'll look at a free lesson, but wouldn't pay for it based on what I see in the video above.

Son

After signing up for the course and watching about half the videos, here's my verdict:

It's a useful video, but it's a specialized topic. The "violin" method is a creative way to explain the concepts but there was really nothing new here for me as simple physics of dance really explain this. You repeat something from a position a few times and you know which way to turn or not. Most advanced students should have learned this stuff without watching this video. As far as non-advanced students... better work on your footwork and timing firsts. The shuffling around that happens on this video is an example of what can happen to your footwork if you try to skip fundamentals in favor of too many turn patterns.

I'll say this, this video is useful for someone who somehow had an instructor that failed to talk about inside/outside turns and when they happen. But I'd think that's a small market.

Son Montuno

Why would a salsa instructor pay to watch videos from someone who not only can't dance, but doesn't even use salsa music in their promotional video advertising their salsa dancing? I'm genuinely curious.

Son Montuno

Why would a salsa instructor pay to watch videos from someone who not only can't dance, but doesn't even use salsa music in their promotional video advertising their salsa dancing? I'm genuinely curious.

Son

Reason #1: It's free
Reason #2: A Salsa Forum Member who is currently a student said it was good, so this is a good thing to know - Market Research!
Reason #3: Curiosity

Mostly though, reason #1. And I didn't even watch the whole half hour. I fast forwarded, watching 30 secs at a time and ended up watching about 5 minutes in total. It might not be a surprise but my summary is this: it focuses only on how to unwind from two handed positions. No mention of music, frame, footwork or anything. In fact, in their end of lesson demos there's still no music.

The slight positive is that it's a novel way of explaining which way to turn, using a metaphor of a violin. It's actually a bit clever, but I don't think you really need a course to teach this and god knows what might have inspired him to do make these lessons and salsampro to watch them. But if salsalmpro somehow had a teacher who ignored it, I could see why he found it useful. I'm a little concerned for anyone learning from this video anything more than how to unwind (basically can be summarized as... follow the top hand).

Speaking of videos where the teacher is not dancing to salsa music and is teaching nonsense, this video is about the worst I've seen:

Son Montuno

That's no reason/excuse, to recommend it .And "free " is the old saying.." caveat emptor ", as a general rule. . For me, It has no re-deeming qualities .
More the question is.. Will the poster let this be his guideline ?..And, they need to know, IF you are a beginner, GO to a class .